New Features in LightTools 8.5 SR2

LightTools 8.5 SR2 includes the following new features, as well as fixes to customer-reported bugs.

Additional Surfaces Supported for Conformal Surface Receivers

Chart Orientation Options Added for Visualizing BSDF Scatter Data

Option Added to Fit Content in Dialog Box Tables

Additional Surfaces Supported for Conformal Surface Receivers

LightTools 8.5 introduced an expanded set of mapping options for surface receivers on non-planar surfaces, known collectively as conformal receivers. The following surfaces, originally listed as unsupported surfaces for this feature now support conformal receivers, as shown in the examples below.

Edges on Freeform surfaces

Surfaces of swept objects that have facets

Chart Orientation Options Added for Visualizing BSDF Scatter Data

In the Optical Properties Manager, if you use a 2D Polar chart to visualize BSDF scatter data, you can now modify the orientation of the displayed data using a View button that was added above the chart.

To modify the orientation of the data displayed in the chart, click the View button and choose the orientation to display: Front, Top, Left, Back, Bottom, or Right.

Option Added to Fit Content in Dialog Box Tables

For dialog boxes that include tables of numeric data, LightTools displays hash marks in a table cell when the numeric value has too many digits to be displayed in a column with the default width. This version provides a new option that allows you to quickly resize the width of table columns so that all the content in the cells is shown. The Fit Column to Content option, shown below, is available on the shortcut menu when you right-click a table heading.

After you select the new option, the columns are resized, and numeric values are displayed in place of the hash marks.

You can use the shortcut menu to resize a single column, multiple columns, or all columns in a table, as shown in the following figures.

To resize a single column, right-click the heading.

To resize multiple columns, select them first and then right-click in one of the headings.

To resize all columns in the table, right-click the cell in the top left corner.

Software and License File Instructions

Direct-Sales Customers
Software and license key files for LightTools direct-sales customers are available on the
Synopsys SolvNet website.

Distributor CustomersFor customers working with distributors, you will continue to obtain your software and license keys from your local LightTools software distributor. See the Synopsys Optical Solutions Group Global Contacts page for contact information. If your country is not listed on the Distributors page referenced above, please contact us at lighttools_support@synopsys.com for instructions.

Please RSVP before July 5 if you plan to attend the reception. We hope to see you there!

Join Us for the LightTools User Group Meeting

Please note the date for our annual LightTools User Group meetings. LightTools User Group Meetings are currently planned for September 12 in Marlborough, MA; and September 19 in Sunnyvale, CA.

What topics would you like to see discussed? What features in LightTools would you like to know more about? How could we help you be more productive in LightTools? You have an opportunity to help determine the topics during the annual LightToolsUser Group meetings. We welcome all ideas and will take those into consideration as we plan for the user group meetings. Help us make the user group a truly worthwhile event for you.

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